Negroni Nirvana – Swizzle, swizzle, swizzle that Negroni

Simple twists yielding so much. This is a common theme that we explore frequently in our writing and we have already experienced twofine examples in this series. As the Negroni Nirvana express makes its way down the tracks, we find ourselves pulling into a town that was not at all expected when we embarked on our journey.

As we saw in the past two days, the Negroni recipe lends itself naturally to exploration – we tweaked the base spirit around a bit and in so doing, created new taste profiles that still sang out “I am a Negroni.” While the most common way to riff a drink is by playing around with ingredients, sometimes you can create an original by changing the method of assembly. True our offering adds in some new actors, a pinch of salt and a dose of soda water, the true magic to theNegroni Swizzle it to do as the name indicates and swizzle vs. stir. For the most part I do not think of drinks as seasonal – sure I prefer tiki drinks in the summer as they just seem to fit – I can drink Manhattan’s and Negroni’s year round. The Negroni Swizzle takes the base recipe and turns it most definitely into a warm weather style drink; frosty and cold.

Once again our “base” recipe of ingredients is used, with the addition of a pinch of sea salt and a splash of club soda. Swizzled until extremely cold, the drink is lighter in flavor all around, with the pinch of salt adding a nice contra to the bitterness of the Campari and sweetness of the vermouth. I had never experienced this variation until this series but as we head towards warmer weather I will most definitely be trying this again.

Negroni SwizzleRecipe created by Giuseppe Gonzalez from Painkiller, New York (now PKNY thanks to a little legal battle over the name) and adapted by theSpeakista

Assembly: Add all of the ingredients to the serving glass filled with crushed ice and using your bar-spoon (or actual swizzle stick) swizzle the drink for a minute or so until the glass turns frosty on the outside. Pack the glass with additional crushed ice until it over fills the glass. Garnish, insert straw and sip on the frost magic.

Wow, with all that swizzling we are a bit tired. No worries, we press on and see what a little agave can do inside a Negroni.

I really enjoy your Negroni series. I’ve already added several of the cocktails you’ve written about to my “must try” list.

And I’m sipping a Negroni Swizzzle as I write. That pinch of salt and handful of ice makes an amazing difference to one of my favorite tastes.

I also find it fascination, that what seems to be just a different technique – and one that could be applied to other cocktails – means the drink gets a new name.

In other areas of creativity it would be conceived as almost theft to claim to rename – and that way claim authorship – on such a minor adjustment. But I guess it’s old practice in the bar tending world – the difference between a Martini and a Gibson being a case in point.

Welcome to my adventure into the blissfulness that is imbibing. I’m a novice to be sure, but I am ready, willing and able to learn more about this medium. Come along, let’s enjoy the adventure together.